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Spring 2018
A Saturday evening
Anna appeared in Jette's office, sitting in the office chair directly in front of the latter's desk. She was smirking, her legs crossed demurely before her, and wearing an orange tracksuit like someone who'd gone jogging in a Bedlam winter.
"Hey, Rocket Shorts! Remember me?"
There was only one person who had ever called Jette Rocket Shorts, even though she'd heard almost nothing of that worthy since she'd gone to jail - three years _after_ Jette herself had gone behind bars. Anna Cline was a good twenty-five years her senior, closer to her late partner's age than her own, but the smile lines were thin enough and the blonde hair real enough that it was clear she didn't look her age; if anything, she looked Jette's age or a few years younger.

GM
Simon Gordon's little movement actually started 25 years ago, so he claims. When the then unknown force of the Terminus invaded Earth. Millions died. All because of the Terminus. It was found later on that there were 'sleeper agents' born of the incident. Children of the Terminus. Some used their powers for good, others for evil. But Simon Gordon knew the truth. They were all lying in wait. They would call down the thunder again. It was only a matter of time.
Simon found like minded folks. Some with fervent belief. And then his message began to spread. He was a leader. Over the past few months, Humans Against Terminus ERuptionS - a term that Gordon cooked up himself after people called their group 'haters' - grew in size and visibility. The HATERS went national Simon got the ear of media. Suddenly everyone knew a little bit about the Terminus. Enough to know that a scary dark invasion was bound to happen. How the public perceived it was split. Though most saw it as a tinfoil conspiracy theory, others knew such things could happen!
March 17, 2018. Noon.
Simon was going to educate the masses, personally. He advertised a meeting in Liberty Park. His like-minded would come, but he wanted his detractors to come. He wanted the fence sitters and unknowing to come. He would explain how the HATERS's goals and ideology.
There was a small stage with a banner above it reading HATERS. No one was on there, but there was a large group of people swarmed around it. The presentation would be starting in thirty minutes.

Interstellar Space
Along the outer length of the Perseus Arm, near the border of Khanate Space
Lor time mark 1795.3 [March 2, 2018 (Terran Calendar)]
The Praetorian spacecraft Kavaca moved along through the dark void of space, currently moving a considerable speed, but not nearly at its top speed. Aboard the sleek silver spacecraft were several members of the Praetorians.
Ha'li Ca'vur, an independent Grue that typically assumed the form of a Dordant female was at the helm of the Kavaca. Ha'li, or Hazmat as she was also known, found the sleek Praetorian craft to handle far better than a craft its size should, performing as well as a standard Starfighter might.
Chlo'zel Elzak, also known as Galvanic, was also on the bridge of the Kavaca, seated at a science station. The Tempestian was monitoring the Kavaca's powerful sensors as they continued to scan the nearby regions of space as the vessel moved through the parsec.
Also present on the bridge were Magnetar, who had magnetic control powers and the towering, eight foot tall reptilian Seresk. Magnetar was seated in another of the chairs on the bridge, handling the vessels navigation. Seresk was seated in an oversized chair at the communications station, monitoring for any transmissions.
The four Praetorians had been sent out to this region of space near the Stellar Khanate to help patrol the area around several systems that had declared independence from the Stellar Khanate following the Incursion. For some time this region had been in considerable turmoil, with numerous pirate groups operating in the area, not to mention the power struggles within the Stellar Khanate. With the independent systems aligned with the Coalition worlds, the Praetorians had offered their assistance in protecting the region, working in conjunction with the Star Knights to help patrol the area and deal with any threats.
Currently the region seemed to have stabilized some, the numbers of pirates seeming to have dwindled. But that did not mean that the patrols of the area had stopped, even if they had started to become generally less eventful.
"Bring us around to heading mark 5." Magnetar stated to Hazmat. "That will take us toward the Alurian System. Anything on sensors?" He asked Galvanic.

GM
Wales, Aprox 10,000 BCE
The last ice age had come and gone, and was consigned to oral mythology along with beasts and demons and cruel Gods of frost and ice. This was a time of humans, scavenging, hunting, and living primitive lives in the forests, hills, lakes and rivers. It was a harsh time, but there was time still for stories and worship, rituals and myths, and even magic.
And sometimes, the magic worked.
The prayers of the Chief had been answered, for through time - further than ever before - Dreadnought fell, to land in the middle of an vast forest, in a valley with clear water, surrounded by the tribe, with a fire, hot in the centre.
Dreadnought could hear plenty of speech but not understand a word of it. But the tribes reaction was clearly startled. With stone spears and hand axes, they kept shocked eye on the giant. They were clean of body, wearing furs and skins, often with red hair, many with scars from accident and ritual. They were young to, by and large - for life was not long in this world, at least by modern standards. Rotten teeth, blemished skin, and sickness marred those even thirty years old, and few indeed would be called old.

March 4, 2018
Noon
Clouds hung over Claremont Academy, the occasional gust of wind shaking snow from the bare trees of the grounds. But for some of the students living on the grounds, this mattered about as much as the next song on the oldies station playing in the teacher's lounge. After having changed out of her warm winter clothes and into the gold and blue uniform of the school, Selena Kwon stepped out of the girl's locker room and into the programmed reality of the school's combat simulation room.
Taking a deep breath, enjoying the facsimile of a beach in the middle of summer. Stepping across the sand, she withdrew several pieces of steel from her belt and waited for the targets to start appearing.

Citadel
Lor Timemark 1792.4 [March 4, 2018 (Terran Calendar)]
The planet Citadel was perhaps among the most unique in the known galaxy. The world had long ago been terraformed so that is contained dozens of different biomes and even atmospheres, many sealed off from one another to prevent contamination. All of this was possible thanks to Mentor and incredibly advanced technology that made the division possible. The various biomes and atmospheres allowed for the incredible variety that made up the membership of the Star Knights, providing barracks and recreational atmospheres as well as training grounds for the Knights and its potential members.
On the largest continent of the planet stood a massive fortress consisting of a ring of a dozen towering spires. Each spire was the width of several city blocks of a major Terran city and rose up well over a mile in height. From this inner ring, dozens of smaller buildings, each no more than ten stories high, extended outward like spokes for several miles. These reached out to connect to some of the major atmosphere sectors of the most unusual planet.
This was the central headquarters of the Order of the Star Knights, the interstellar guardians of freedom and justice. Within those walls were the vast processors which contained Mentor, the enigmatic cybernetic computer network that contained the knowledge and experiences of thousands of individuals. There were also training facilities, living quarters and various administrative and support offices for the Order.
As the sun rose in the sky over the headquarters of the Star Knights, many members of the Order and its recruits were just beginning their day. For the group of recruits that were recently officially given the title of Star Squire, today would mark the first day they would be leaving Citadel to continue their training working alongside current Knights, undertaking the sorts of missions they would one day be expected to carry out on their own.

Spring 2018
Outside Chris and Liz's Apartment
Ashley remembered Chris - pretty and athletic, with a quick wit and a ready smile that had made him the subject of a whole lot of crushes. Maybe sixteen-year-old Ashley George, who'd spent her teen years behind heavy acne and thick glasses, had been one of those crushes. But ten years ago could be a long time, and she wasn't the same person she'd been back then. "And you're sure he won't mind us just dropping by like this?" With her hair up, folder under her arm, dressed in a dark suit, she didn't look like a teenager - something she'd have to take advantage of as long as she could.
"I am fairly confident Christopher knows that you could find him easily enough," said Callie Summers as she knocked on the door. They'd managed to stay civil enough on the drive over here, probably because neither of them had said a word to each other once they were both in the car. "And you should."

GM
Feb 3rd, 2018
On the start of a long dark night
And cold, too.
The woman was running down a bad street in a bad part of town. Wolverton. It bled drugs, it bled guns, it bled blood. And it looked like it would bleed this woman too. She was dressed in bad clothes, a little torn. She was running barefoot, and left a bloody footprint.
All this, Arrowhawk saw in the dark streets.
And behind her, a car, black like the night sky, headlights on and blazing full beam, a determined man at the wheel, his eyes fixed on the woman, his car gaining fast. He didn't look intent on running her down. probably. He did look intent on catching her...

April 2018
Bayview
Freedom City
Day 15 since D-Day.
In Callie Summers' office, Ashley George was adding up how long it had been since she'd had a good night's sleep in a bed and she wasn't liking the answer. Maybe she should have left the office, and the city, once the final arrangements had been made, giving her more time to wrap up the personal life that she was about to set aside for two years - God, maybe more. Maybe she shouldn't have had that third cup of coffee the night before, denying her a restful sleep in between images of the White House in flames. What could have happened, what might have happened. Ashley George, the biggest hero no one in Washington was ever going to talk about. Silence had fallen in the headmistress's office, in between the ticking of the grandfather clock she'd inherited from her father, and looking across the table at the silent visage of her former mentor, all Ashley could think about was how old she looked.
"You actually kept the picture," she finally said, not asking the question of why. She knew the frame well enough, even if it was actually pointed at the headmistress rather than the agent standing on the opposite side of the desk. She wasn't sitting; she wasn't a student here, not anymore. She hadn't seen the girl in it, sixteen years old and bursting with pride, for a long time. "You should take it down while we're here," she said, keeping her voice even. "It'll compromise things."
"I will take that under consideration," said Callie Summers, giving her former protege that ever-maddening imperturbable stare. "Thank you for staying for this meeting. I want to make sure you and Raven are properly introduced."
"...that's what he is, huh? Just Raven?" asked Ashley, her voice sharper than she'd intended. "Must make things easier."

GM
26 February, 2018. 815 PM. In front of Beaudrie Opera House.
Ray and Rachael Trask, better known as Rant and Rave to the Freedom City superhero community, had not been seen for years. In fact, some whispered that they had met their fate by messing with the wrong type of 'hero'. Others say they buggered off to Oregon to mess with Emerald City or join a cult or whatever the clickbait sites could make you click on. But here they were. In Freedom, still looking young as their first heist. What were the two up to? Well, unlike their old days, which mainly involved knocking off banks and selling whatever could get them money, they seemingly had transitioned to wanton destruction.
The Trask siblings were seeing how many 'points they could score by tearing down the scenery. Holding each other's hand, they blasted everything, followed by a yell of how many points it got them. The people in the direct vicinity were terrified.

GM
One of the Week Days? Maybe? Probably March 4th 2018? Evening?
Definitely Jessica Witchblood's apartment
The first thing that happened was the knock at the door. It was firm, insistent, and worst of all woke Jessica up out of an extremely pleasant dream. One involving a beach, a soft-eyed lover and one of her old teachers burning on a stake for all to see.
"Are you there, Ms. Witchblood?" A muffled voice hollered through the door "It's me, your demon! I'm...well I'm here for the orientation!"
This week had been one of the worst in Jessica's entire life. If she tried to focus on any one of the miserable things that had been going on, it caused her a severe migraine and summoned several other phantoms for the problems stacked on top of them. Which started hitting her head with large iron mallets.
That might have been the ill-fated all-nighter coming back to haunt her. Greek wine was sweet, delicious, deadly. Sweet, like the lips of-
The voice burst in again "Um....is this the right place? Should I come back? I need to see a Ms. Witchblood right away! Otherwise they'll throw me in the lake of fire! Again!"

March 2018
UC-San Diego
The UC-San Diego campus wasn't quite dead during spring break. They had far too many residential students, and students who lived on-campus, for that. But as Mark Lucas sat on the soft green grass of the Warren Mall, he mostly had the place to himself, minus a picnicking couple down the way and a guy doing his best to study despite the occasional gust of wind kicking up the pages of his textbook. He wasn't really paying attention, though. "I've been keeping an eye out and so have our friends, but so far there's been no sign of any assassins. I think maybe this was another empty threat. Listen, I promise I'll Skype you once we get there - yes, my phone has service in Dakana. I'm just waiting for my friend so I can give her a ride. Love you too, babe, and give the baby a kiss for me." Feeling sentimental, Mark hung up the phone and checked the West Coast time - did he had time to pop back over and see his wife and son before playing taxi for Tsunami? Probably not. With a sigh, he slipped his phone in his pocket and waited for his rendezvous.

February 17th, 2018
Science Lab, Claremont Academy
Zhu
It was Saturday Afternoon and while most students were either still asleep or relaxing as there were no scheduled classes today. Zhu, dressed in black yoga pants and a flowing white thigh length tank dress was the lone occupant in the lab. While she wasn't working on any particular school project, the amazing array of equipment was a dream for her to work on. She was currently trying to revise her nanobots to give them a little more independence. Her latest babysitting adventure had convinced her that she needed to really work on their capabilities.
While she was working in the pristine lab, another pair of student was finishing up their tour. Eric VanWitzenburg, a senior, was leading Tony Edwards through the science section of the classrooms. He paused just outside the lab that Zhu was in, "so that pretty much wraps up the tour. We're in the science section and you'll have a lot of classes here. You have the introduction packet, your schedule, and your room assignment. I hate to do this, but I have to head out. You should be able to get back to the dorms through that door."
He shook Tony's hand and hustled back to the admin building where there was another person whom he had to give a tour too.
Meanwhile an atomic centrifuge made a powerful whirring noise from the lab as it separated some component materials to it's atomic elements. Zhu didn't appear to be looking at the very detailed readouts on the console, but every now and again, a prompt would flash up and it would go away without her even seeming to acknowledge it.

16 February, 2018. Lunchtime. Claremont Academy, Cafeteria.
Tony's stuff had already arrived, but he himself had not. He looked up at the Main Entrance, and then down to the map. He had to get to administration to sign in. Carrying a few large rucksacks on his back and and a couple of rolling carryons behind him, he didn't seemed phased at all. He could feel the other students eyes on him as he walked through the Main Quad on the way to the Administration Building. He'd felt it before in normal school. Being the big guy meant you were dumb or a target by smaller people trying to prove themselves. Or both. So he waded through, looking at the map.
Though he hadn't eaten lunch yet. He was quite hungry. Maybe the cafeteria had some snacks. He was pretty sure that he couldn't get lunch until he signed on the dotted line. So he went to the cafeteria. Head still down, but the map was gone. He reached inside his pocket to pull out some money. Luckily there was an exchange at the airport. He eyed the egg sandwich and dropped some money in the vending machine.

Wharton State Forest, just off Sorrow House Road
Right Now
The creature in the clearing lounged in a throne made of bone enjoying there first taste of freedom in centuries. It had expected someone to try and stop its return but was really disappointed by the effort, only a single human female had tried to stop them with her flaming sword. She was now held by some of the skeleton warriors, servants of old returned to carry on there servitude. The glowing green eyes beneath her hood was a nice touch they'd have to determine how she managed such a trick.
"Did you expect to be able to beat me all by yourself pitiful human?"
"Not exactly." the woman voice had an accent unfamiliar to them "Let me tell you how this all started a..."

GM
Feb 18th, The Fens
In the morning...
It happened practically outside Bonfire's door.
At some ungodly hour in the morning, when everyone should, rightly, be asleep or nursing a hang over after partying to hard the night before. Or at the very least, pounding alertness back in to their head with a strong coffee.
On the streets in the Fens, where the paucity of wealth and opportunity oft forced the youth into nefarious and dangerous pastimes.
A gang of thugs was engaging in mindless vandalism. Baseball bats and clubs, sticks, and stones. These wonderful devices, and more, were being used to splendid effect in the ignoble pursuit of window smashing and car wrecking. There was the growl and scream of angry dogs, for this gang was armed with what looked to be rabid and viscous dogs.
And now, a patrol car arrived.
"Halt! Put your hands up!"
Then screaming.
A shot. Two shots.
And more screaming.
The two police officers were pinned to the floor by the thugs and the dogs, and looked, verily, to be in danger of imminent loss of limb. Or quite possibly life.

Lor Standard Date 1853.1
WISE 0535−7500
The Lor don't know the moon's name - not yet. They know that the stellar body that Terrans call WISE 0535, too large for a planet and too small for a brown dwarf, was part of a star system in Delaztri days - a star system that went missing in the interregnum in the records between the fall of the Delaztri and the arrival of the first Lor starships. They know this moon, the size of a Lor-Van-sized planet, was inhabited in those days with cities, a spaceport, and a population in perhaps the millions. They're not sure yet; the layers of ice, first oxygen and atmospheric gases, then water ice, are thick enough that the Archaeological Service has been digging for months even to come this far, to the high upper stories of what had once been an arcology. They've found some interesting things.
-
Pugio awoke to pain, and voices, and darkness, the sounds of vibration elsewhere. He faded in and out of consciousness.
"Translator online, deciphering audio records."
And darkness, and confinement, and _cold_.
"Spaceship hangars are gold - not only does it give you access to their tech, it gives you their starmaps - and that gives you access to _more_ of their tech."
He wasn't in his own craft, he was in something else, something dark and cold and confining, and then suddenly the rear of it was coming open. In the instant before light came streaming in and two envirosuited humanoids looked down at him, Pugio realized he was in the back of a medical evacuation shuttle - but what in all the hells had happened to it?

West End, Freedom City, New Jersey
Saturday February 10, 2018
9:34 PM
Mali Benjawan was standing on the rooftop of a four story building in West End dressed in the costume she wore as Crimson Tiger. Over the past couple of days Mali had been investigating the disappearance of several young people in some of the lower income parts of Freedom City. Her investigation so far (read: some roughed up criminal informants) had led her to believe that these disappearances where the work of the Dark Fist, a street gang connected with the On At-Zhang, a Triad that operated in parts of the West End.
While Mali would normally not be overly afraid of pursuing things further on her own, as luck would have it her friend and former classmate at Claremont, Giang Trang, had reached out about wanting to help Mali with anything she might be working on. Giang had explained she was helping a current Claremont student with some things and wanted to get her a bit of crime fighting experience as part of the process.
So the two had arranged to meet here. Mali had arrived a bit early, to watch over the location that her sources had indicated was a hideout for the Dark Fist. It was an old warehouse on the West End’s boarder with Grenville For the most part the warehouse was dark and appeared abandoned, but from her vantage point, Mali could see that the section toward the back had lights on, and there were lots of motorcycles parked out near the back entrance and occasionally people coming and going out there.
A few blocks away
Jessica Witchblood was on a Freedom City Transit bus, on her way toward the southeastern edge of the West End. The young woman had been looking into the disappearance of Hannah Ryan, a girl that was a peripheral member of the group of friends who worked in the clubs that Jessica was part of. Despite warnings from Jessica and some of her other friends, Hannah had gotten at least partially involved in some of the more dangerous criminal elements of Freedom City. And now no one had seen Hannah in a couple of days.
Not convinced the police would put this as a high enough priority, Jessica had started looking into it herself. So far the best lead she had was that it might somehow be connected to a street gang known as the Dark Fist. So, now she was on a bus headed toward a place the gang was known to hang out at. The next stop would get her a few blocks from the address.

GM
February 2nd, 2.22AM, 2018
The Stately Faretti Haunted Manor...
Outside the world was white. All of Lantern Hill was blanketed in the same piling, driving mass of sub-zero powder. Diamonds glittered in every snowbank, deer driven from the Wharton State Forest to find forage tip-toed gingerly through the yards, leaping fences to nibble at some potted greens. Birds fluttered and shivered as they hunted for scraps to bring back to the nest, keeping an eye out for any night-prowling cats.
And Taylor Xiao Chun Faretti did not have to think about any of that, relaxing after an exhausting day, strong walls and a sturdy roof(not to mention a particularly powerful elemental ward) kept the chill at bay. For all her cares as Heshem's chosen and the newly-minted Master Mage of Earth's dimension and dominions, for the moment such things could wait.
Which was about when the familiar, sepulchral voice spoke.
Chosen
The golden light of the lamp that roiled into being, along with the robed figure whose hands held it aloft on its staff, was unmistakable.
There is a crack in the gates. Through it, innocents fall to darkness. My light shields them, but the night is hungry.
The light curled, and for a moment Taylor saw eyes hard with anger.
Such has never been, it must never be again.
With a roar of fire, the image of Heshem vanished.

Leviathan's Lair
The depths of Great Bay, Freedom City, New Jersey
Saturday February 10, 2018
Up on the surface of the waves of Great Bay, the winds still whipped the cold that had gripped the East Coast across the water toward Freedom City. But deep beneath the waves’ surface, the waters were not much colder than they normally were.
Along the rocky floor of Great Bay, nestled amongst the kelp and seaweed beds that rouse up dozens of feet, lay the undersea lair that Dr. Tristan Delacroix had created to be his lair as Leviathan. It was there that the good doctor was currently located. After encountering the Deep One Aquaria (also known as the superhero Sea Devil) a few months ago, a number of different things had seemed to come up and prevent him from showing the Deep One his headquarters.
But finally they had been able to find a day that fit both their schedules, so now Aquaira and her roommate Jessie White would soon be arriving.

Unknown
Wednesday February 14, 2018 (hopefully)
When Rev and SFX entered the portal, they immediately felt as if they were being pulled forward at incredible speed, yet at the same time felt as if they were going nowhere. All around bright light flashed by, creating a sort of tunnel around them.
Just a little ways ahead of them were the simulacrums who were still holding on to Lawrence. However, some sort of distortion appeared around the three, appearing to be centered on Lawrence.
"You will be taken to the master." Said the simulacrum that looked like Robert. "It is inevitable."

Downtown Emerald City
Though most of the development was done out at the MarsTech campus there was always a need to have a Downtown office, and Mars being Mars it was obviously the largest most dramatic building in the area. Three green crystals, each taller than the other, looking like they had grown from the ground to be bound in metal. Only from above was it apparent that the three together formed a giant M. It might be an architectural marvel, but it still needed the modern comforts that made working there bearable.
Unlike most buildings it airconditioning was all on the roof but rather discretely scattered throughout the building, and concerned about a possible chemical attack it has some cutting-edge filtration equipment, that contained some rather nasty chemicals. Many service companies bid for the lucrative contract to maintain this system but only one company won, thanks to the planning and knowledge of one skilled young engineer...

GM
February 5, 2018, 9:15 am
Fires weren't an altogether unusual occurence. Accidents happened all over the city, and with a population as large as Freedom City's, they were bound to occur at some point or another. The Hampstead Apartments weren't exactly trouble magnets--a high rise apartment complex with several hundred tenants, it mostly went unnoticed by most who didn't already live there. Today, however, things were different.
The fire started at around 9 am. In a matter of 15 minutes, however, the 3rd, 4th, and 5th floors of the ten story building were spewing thick, black smoke from broken windows, the flames raging inside enough for even Jessica to see it from a block away. The iire department was doing its best to combat the flames, but they only seemed to be spreading by the second, and it seemed that not everyone was out of the building yet...

Ardor asteroid belt just a few light years inside Lor Space
Along the inner edge of the Perseus Arm
Lor time mark 1801.4 [February 6, 2018 (Terran Calendar)]
The Ardor asteroid belt lay beyond any of the systems with Lor Republic, but still within the borders claimed by the Republic. It was a collection of various sized asteroids that stretched nearly half a light year, but was well enough out of the way of any systems that it did not normally interfere with regular trade lanes. But several cycles ago, some unknown force had begun shifting the belts location, threatening to move it to where it would be a hazard to regular space traffic. As such, a Lor science team had been deployed to the asteroid belt to investigate and see what might possibly be done to halt the process.
The team had included an unusual consultant, Quentin Quill of Earth, also known as Supercape. Working with the Lor scientists, Quill had identified an usual singularity that was causing the asteroid belt’s migration, a Quantum Dark Zone within one edge of the belt. During one of Quill's trips into the void to investigate the singularity, he had inadvertently been pulled into it, finding himself trapped within it.
Unbeknownst to him, that was a little over three Earth years ago.

2018-02-07 20:12:00
Bayview - Pramas Bridge
Pramas View CIty Park
Zhu
The view across the South River, and especially the impressive Pramas bridge was impressive, at least to Zhu who felt some comfort watching the docks on the other side of the river. Her home had been a busy port and this was a view that reminder her ever so slightly of where she had come from. Not that she objected to being here, but sometimes there was a twinge of homesickness where she just liked to pretend that she was still in China. While she enjoyed the view, she had more reason lately to come to the small park. Her mentor had asked her to work on her concentration and had given her some exercises and tasks that were to help her concentrate on more than one thing at a time. While she could do them in Claremont, she felt a little silly doing the Yoga poses in front of Rev and had sought out the solitary park with it's little memorial to Chris Pramas.
On most nights, it was pretty clear of people, and certainly more so in the winter. While she hated the cold it was apparently good training to be uncomfortable while working on concentration.
She was just about to get into her first position when she noticed the woman who had either entered the park with her, or perhaps had gotten there just before her. While it was a little odd, certainly the park was a public space and she wasn't the only person who appreciated the wonderful view. With a sigh, she began to try to balance on one foot with her other leg angled against her standing leg's knee. Shuddering a little, she raised both arms to the sky and held the position, trying to empty her mind and concentrate on just being.